Shocks and needles and electrodes, oh my!

I had a follow-up EMG today.  The regeneration of nerves is such a fascinating thing!  In fact, the whole human body is fascinating.  Bones break and heal, nerves that receive and deliver signals from the brain can just grow back when injured - all right before our very eyes.  It's slow, but SO interesting!

My radial nerve was injured above my elbow and in the past 3+ months since my first EMG, it has completely healed to a point below my elbow, about 3-4" worth of regeneration.  As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I was told it would grow about 1mm a day, or 1" a month.  It has been 5 months since the fracture,  so it does appear to be following the "normal" path of recovery.

The muscle that allows us to lift our wrist is high in the forearm, close to the elbow.  My wrist is working well and the EMG confirmed that the nerve up into my triceps from this point is completely healed. (music to my ears!)  As the nerve travels further down the forearm, it begins to help with the function of the fingers.  There are signs of improvement in my 4 fingers, but very little in my thumb.  The EMG confirmed this.  There are areas of the nerve that are not showing any signal at all.  The Dr. is not concerned, she feels that the healing in this area has just not happened yet.  She feels that although there is no guarantee, at this point she is confident that it will come back over the next 3-4 months.

I had another milestone - NO MORE DYNAMIC SPLINT!  It has served me well!  Both the Dr. and the PT agree that at this point it may hinder the strengthening of the muscles and that using my hand in any capacity as much as possible is the best PT of all.  I thought that when I was done with this thing I would want to melt it down like the Wicked Witch of the West but in a strange kind of way it signifies a lot and I don't want to throw it away.  It kind of represents 5 months of my life this year .... how weird am I?